218 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



Many writers mention the resemblance which the head of the 

 locust bears to that of the horse ; whence the Italians call them 

 cavalette. But the prophet does not appear to be describing the 

 shape of the insect, when he compares it to a horse, but rather its 

 properties, its fierceness, and its swift motion. Thus, in Rev. ix. 

 7, the locusts are compared to horses prepared for the battle ; furi- 

 ous and impatient for the war. 



The noise of their coming shall be heard at a distance, like the 

 sound of chariots passing over the mountains. When they fall on 

 the ground and leap from place to place, and devour the fruits, the 

 sound of them will resemble the crackling of the stubble when con- 

 suming by the flames ; or the din and clamor of an army ready 

 prepared to engage in battle. 



How this description agrees to the locusts, is shown abundantly 

 by Bochart, who tells us, from several authors, that they fly with a 

 great noise ; as John has also described them, ' The sound of their 

 wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to bat- 

 tle,' (Rev. ix. 9.) ; that they may be heard at six miles distance ; and 

 that when they are eating the fruits of the earth, the sound is like 

 that of a flame driven by the wind. 



The prophet adds 



Before them the earth quaketh, the heavens tremble j 

 The sun and the moon are darkened, 

 And the stars withdraw their shining. 



Dr. Shaw, by whose excellent zoological remarks so many pas- 

 sages in the sacred writings have been elucidated, has shown, from 

 the testimony of his own observation, that these poetical expressions 

 are scarcely hyperbolical with respect to this formidable insect. And 

 Pliny, the Roman naturalist, gives a description of its migratory 

 swarms almost equally sublime with that of the eastern poet. 'This 

 plague,' says he, ' is considered as a manifestation of the wrath of 

 the'gods. 'For they appear of an unusual size ; and fly with such 

 a noise, from the motion of their wings, that they might be taken 

 for birds. They darken the sun. And the nations view them in 

 anxious suspense ; each apprehensive lest their own lands should 

 be overspread by them. For their strength is unfailing ; and, as if 

 it were a small thing to have crossed oceans, they pervade immense 

 tracts of land, and cover the harvests with a dreadful cloud ; their 

 very touch destroying many of the fruits of the earth, but their bite 

 utterly consuming all its products, and even the houses.' 



The account which Volney gives of these insects, and of their 

 devastations, is a wonderful illustration of this passage of the proph- 

 et. .* Syria, , as well as Egypt, Persia, and almost all the South of 

 Asia, is subject to a calamity no less dreadful than that of the vol- 

 canoes and earthquakes I have mentioned : I mean those clouds of 

 locusts so often mentioned by travellers. The quantity of these in- 

 sects is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their 

 Astonishing numbers: the whole earth is covered with them, for the 



